


Exit Wounds

by LittleLynn



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, i suspect im playing fast and loose with some of the time line but shhh, inside agent gabe fic, look i read a theory on it so good i sold my soul to it and wrote a fic, well mostly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 19:30:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14527590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLynn/pseuds/LittleLynn
Summary: Every Overwatch agent knew that eight years ago Gabriel Reyes destroyed the Swiss base in an attempt to kill Jack Morrison, that he now worked for Talon as the remorseless mercenary Reaper and hunted his former comrades.At least, that’s what Gabriel and Jack needed everyone to think.





	Exit Wounds

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the beautiful [sailingonstardust ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailingonstardust/profile) <3

 

Soldier let his head fall back against the wall, closing his eyes briefly, giving himself only seconds to catch his breath before re-entering the fray; he was getting too old for this.

As he ducked out from his cover, Soldier saw Hana going toe-to-toe with a Talon heavy – far upgraded since the last time he saw them – while yelling something about “easy mode” over the comms. Soldier started pumping his pulse rifle at the heavy to assist her; regardless of what she was giggling over the comms system, heavies were not to be trifled with. Overwatch was filled with such a mix of new faces and old, it made it difficult for Jack to get a read on the new version of the old organisation, whether it would make the same mistakes as the old one.

They all treated him with respect. The old guard had recognised him almost immediately when he’d approached the newly reformed group, despite him having been presumed dead for eight years. But they let him maintain the illusion of his Soldier76 mask; he had no interest in the questions that everyone no doubt wanted to ask him.

It was the people he had known before that were difficult for him. Hana, Lúcio, Zarya; they were nice, but he didn’t feel like he owed them anything. He could see the questions in their eyes: _what happened_ and _why didn’t you tell us you were alive_. But worst of all was the pity he could see there: _I’m so sorry Jack_ , _I miss him too,_ and _do you know who the Reaper is_ , because that made him feel guilt.

Of course he knew who the Reaper was, would know even if the story they all believed was true. The story of such a carefully planned piece of deceit against the world, maintained even to their closest friends. That something had happened, that Gabriel had been Talon’s mole in Overwatch, that they had a fight, that Gabriel had caused an explosion at the Swiss base and killed Jack Morrison and subsequently caused the disintegration of the old organisation.

It wasn’t true of course. He and Gabriel had realised that Overwatch was corrupt from the inside, knew Moira was feeding Talon information. But they didn’t know how far the corruption had spread. Even where Talon’s claws hadn’t reached, bureaucracy and politics had rotted away. They were losing the fight against Talon, badly; the public was turning on them, the politicians were making it impossible to do their jobs.

So, they’d rewritten the rules. They fabricated a growing rift between them, making sure to fight loudly and viscerally where plenty of people could hear them. Jack had subtly damaged Overwatch’s relationship with the UN until it was irreparable, until it could limp on only for a year more at most. Gabe had made himself the ‘loose cannon’, tricked Moira into believing that he really was done with Overwatch and with Jack Morrison, that he wanted a more radical solution, that all this business of peace with the omnics was wrong, that with the right push, he would turn over to Talon. And when they were sure all the pieces were in place, they’d destroyed the Swiss base, making it look like Gabe had been working for Talon all along.

Overwatch, corrupt and tainted, had fallen without Jack there to hold it together, and Talon had brought in an injured and angry Gabriel Reyes, newly reborn into the Reaper.

Years of Gabe allowing Talon to experiment on him to gain their trust, of completing their missions and working with their thugs. Year of standing stoically next to Widowmaker and pretending his heart wasn’t breaking at the empty shell that used to be his best friend’s wife. Years of Jack working alone to try and keep the peace out in the world, of lonely nights wondering when the next time Gabriel would be able to slip away may be.

But they were making headway; Gabriel almost had what they needed. The newly recalled Overwatch proved a nice distraction for Talon and gave Gabe a chance to prove to them that he really was against Overwatch, and it finally allowed him access into the inner circle within Talon.

They’d both talked about Jack going back to Overwatch when Winston unexpectedly recalled them. It would allow Jack to keep an eye on them, to pit Soldier76 and Reaper directly against each other and further cement Gabriel’s cover, and in case they were more competent against Talon this time round, to keep Gabriel safe if the worst came to the worst and they caught him. Unlikely, but it was better to allow for every possibility.

So Jack monitored recalled Overwatch, while Gabe slowly dismantled Talon from the inside.

As a bullet grazed past his arm, Jack couldn’t help but wonder if they hadn’t given enough to the world by now.

“On your left, Lúcio.” Jack grunted, Lúcio spinning on his heels and forcing his would-be assailant back with a sound blast and a ‘Woo! Yeah!’, giving Jack enough time to pump the Talon thug full of bullets.  

Talon had attacked an omnic shelter in London, attempting to stir up more tension between omnics and humans all over again. Overwatch had come as fast as they could to push them back and protect the omnics inside. Jack knew another omnic war would likely destroy the world; they’d barely survived the last one.

Zenyatta and Genji had accompanied them on the mission despite the fact they worked best as their own unit, Genji more in sync with his omnic Guru than he had even been with Jesse. In truth, Jack had found it hard to believe that this Genji was the same man he knew from Blackwatch — anger, hurt, and dysphoria changed to tranquillity, peace, and acceptance.

As a group they methodically worked through Talon’s forces. Soldier, D.Va, and Lúcio pushed from the front while Genji and Zenyatta worked as a deadly flanking duo. They listened to Jack’s orders. Even though he did not officially hold rank above any of them anymore, they all recognised the most seasoned tactician on the battlefield. It was neither a long nor hard fight, with the scrape to Jack’s arm and a few dents in D.Va’s MEKA being the only injuries sustained, and both easily fixed.

****

When the fight was over, Jack swept the perimeter with D.va and Lúcio while Zenyatta and Genji went to help the omnics inside the building. It wasn’t long before they were all on a transport heading back to the Gibraltar base. Genji and Zenyatta locked in some shared meditation while Hana and Lúcio played some handheld game. Jack just shut his eyes and tried to sleep, trying to ignore the lonely ache in his chest and wondering when he would see Gabriel next.

When they returned to base they debriefed with Winston, the others speaking enough that Jack stayed quiet throughout, nothing to add that they had not covered already. There was a meeting as soon as the debrief ended; Jack suspected they had been waiting for him to return before having it, loathe to leave their former Strike Commander out of the decisions despite his disinterest in leading them.

Not every agent attended these meetings. It was mainly old members of Overwatch trying to work out how to run a group like this and figuring out what to do next. Winston sat at the head of the table, with Angela, Fareeha, Lena, Torbjörn, Jesse, and Genji scattered around the sides. Jack took his seat, not sure why they felt like they needed him here when he barely said anything anymore anyway.

“We have reason to believe Talon is moving on Volskaya again, we think they may be after one of their new Mechs. Obviously this cannot be allowed to happen. The havoc they could wreak with just one of those things…and if they turned them on the omnics without the omnic community knowing it was Talon behind the wheel, not Russia then... well.”

“Then we would be looking at another war,” Fareeha finished for him, a look on her face that reminded Jack so much of her mother his chest ached. The resemblance pushed a fresh wave of guilt through him. He knew Ana was alive after all, yet her own daughter didn’t. He’d not seen her since Egypt. God, he missed that woman.

“So, what’s the plan? Send a bunch of us in to watch Volskaya in case they come?” Lena asked.

“Unfortunately, yes, that’s about the only plan I have given how little intel we have to go on,” Winston said, looking somewhat demoralised. Jack didn’t add anything, he knew the intel was good. Talon was going to hit Volskaya again, Gabe had warned him, he’d just make sure the right people were stationed there to be able to stop them.

“Do we have an update on the list Reaper stole from you, Winston?” Fareeha asked. Jack ignored the glances everyone threw at him at the mention of Reaper. He felt awful for lying to them all, to what was essentially his family, but it was safer the less people knew the truth.

Jack looked over to Jesse, the only one who hadn’t glanced at him, who was staring at his lap. On his face was the mixture of hurt and anger it always showed when Gabriel was brought up. Really it was Jesse they should be trying to comfort, not Jack. Gabriel had been like a father to Jesse, and he didn’t know the truth.

“We know he didn’t recover the full list. Unfortunately, we do not yet know what he plans to do with it,” Winston sighed. Jack knew exactly what he was doing with it. He was cross-referencing it with Talon’s databanks to discover where all of Overwatch’s breaches had been so that they could make certain none of them made it back close to any of the agents. Then he was going to alter the information on the list before handing it over to Talon with a bunch of phony info. But Jack could hardly tell that to Overwatch.

“We all know what he’s gunna do with it.” Jesse grit out and they all winced at his tone, fist clenched on the table. Genji laid a metal hand over Jesse’s flesh one and gave him a gentle squeeze. It seemed to help a little.

“It seems likely he will use it to track down old agents.”  _ And kill _ Genji didn’t say, didn’t need to. They all thought they knew and they were all wrong. Jack supposed it just meant the plan was working.

“We have already moved most of the listed agents to safe locations, with the others scheduled to be moved very soon.” Angela said, clicking at a datapad to check their progress.

“What did the guys that moved on Reaper’s base find?” Lena asked. There had been a second mission running while they had protected the omnic shelter; Winston had a lead on where he believed Reaper was holed up, somewhere in Mexico.

“Not Reaper.” Torbjörn grumbled.

“No, but there was evidence that he had been there. Though anything useful was gone or destroyed.”

“So a big fat nuthin’.” Jesse grunted. He hadn’t really lost his happy-go-lucky attitude, but when Reaper was mentioned Jack saw the way it strained him, the way his fingers itched for a cigarillo, his shoulders tensed, and his usually carefree tone became laced with anger and impatience.

Jack knew he couldn’t risk Gabe’s cover. He’d wind up dead instantly if Talon discovered he’d been working against them all this time, and the less people knew the truth the less likely that outcome was. That didn’t stop the guilt, though.

“Well, perhaps. But it does make me hopeful that we are closing in on him. He  _ was _ there, after all.” Winston attempted to find the silver-lining, not that many of them were interested in seeing it where Reaper was concerned.

The meeting adjourned not long after that. Jack only spoke to make recommendations on who should be sent to Volskaya that Winston accepted easily. They didn’t have the resources yet to be preventing attacks and so worked most as a reactionary force, fighting back against Talon and other rogue terror groups when no one else could. The public was warming up to them again, which surprised Jack. He hadn’t thought eight years would be long enough to have forgiven them all their trespasses. But then, the world was probably more forgiving after eight years of Talon and insurgent omnic groups and dangerous gangs festering without Overwatch around to help.

****

Jack endured a mostly quiet week. He hated those; when he was running for his life or on a mission he didn’t have to think, when he was just left on his own he couldn’t avoid it. He spent the week worrying about Gabe and missing him in turn. When the alarms went the following week Jack couldn’t help but feel relieved, grabbing his gear and heading to the mission room.  

“Talon are in Monaco, we’ve no idea what they’re up to but they aren’t worrying about civilian casualties,” Winston said hurriedly as what agents were in the base at the moment poured into the room. There weren’t a huge number of them with so many agents tied up in Volskaya. “We need to send a team in right away, to protect the citizens and stop Talon getting whatever it is they’re there for.”

“Is there no indication of what they are after?” Hanzo asked, studying the map of the city Winston had up.

“There is a lab there. Though Monaco has been extremely tight lipped over what is going on there, it’s possible that is what they want, but I can’t be sure. Reaper has been sighted. I wouldn’t do this, but with so many tied up in Volskaya…”

“It’s fine, Winston,” Jack grunted, at the same time Jesse said “I can handle it.” 

“Good. I’m sending in you both, Hanzo, Reinhardt, Fareeha, and Angela.”

“That will leave the base very thin on the ground,” Fareeha noted, concern in her tone. It was always possible that this was a distraction to draw more of them away from the base, make it vulnerable to attack.

“What choice do we have?” Winston asked. “People are dying.”

“Very well,” she nodded, turning to the team, “move out.”

They boarded the jet and were flying towards Monaco within five minutes, everyone pulling on their combat suits and checking their weapons.

The flight was tense. With the exception of Hanzo, everyone on board had known Gabriel. Fareeha, Angela, and Reinhardt were tucked in one corner, trying to carry on a conversation but finding it constantly stilted. Jesse sat tensely along one wall, Hanzo a pillar of composure next to him, and Jack didn’t miss the way the usually so prickly older Shimada was pressed comfortingly against Jesse’s side. Jack sat on his own, wondering how he was going to make sure none of them would actually manage to incapacitate Gabe, though Jack knew he could handle himself.

They went over tactics briefly, even though they were all seasoned enough fighters to know what they were good at, where they should be. Reinhardt would push in from the front with Jack and Angela, Fareeha giving air support and a quick escape to Angela should she need it. Hanzo would provide cover from the rooftops and inform Jesse of the locations of any flankers that needed dealing with.

They were an efficient group, pushing in meticulously, bearing down on the enemy and pushing into the lab with little fanfare. It was, indeed, where Talon had been headed. Hanzo came inside with them, while Fareeha stayed outside, perched on the roof of the building and guarding their exit. They moved through the corridors slowly and as quietly as they conceivably could with Reinhardt with them. Hanzo’s sonic arrows let them know what was around the corners as they pressed inwards, but as they came towards the final set of doors to the large laboratory they knew there was going to be no way to sneak inside, and they couldn’t be sure what was waiting there.

With a nod between their team indicating that they were ready, Reinhardt smashed the doors open, revealing a large amount of Talon soldiers scattered about the room. They were all already braced and ready for their entrance and they fired against Reinhardt’s shield immediately.

At the centre of the room stood Reaper, with Moira next to him, barely looking up from the file she was reading when they burst in.

“I think they’ve become slower.” She quipped drolly, flicking to the next page in the file. “Kill them.” She ordered, and Reaper pulled out his guns and stepped towards them.

It became chaotic after that. Reinhardt’s shield wasn’t going to last long under the onslaught, so they were forced to separate to find cover. Jack held down the trigger on his rifle and tore through the swarm of Talon soldiers while Reinhardt’s hammer knocked arcs of them down on the other side of the room and Angela raced to keep them all healed up from her covered position.

Jack knew Gabriel was using ‘protecting Moira’ as a reason not to get close enough to properly engage them with his shotguns, but as Jack worked tirelessly to cut through the enemy and turn the odds in their favour, he saw Jesse moving towards Gabe. It was a reckless move, not what Jesse should be doing. He knew better than to get close to guns like that, but he shouted as he went.

“Join the fight, you goddamn coward!” Jesse’s shout turned Gabriel’s head. The number of Talon soldiers was rapidly decreasing but one still would have caught Jesse if not for a well-placed arrow from Hanzo.

“He hardly needs to if you are stupid enough to come to him. But then you never were the brightest of the bunch, were you?” Moira taunted drily, still not bothering to look up.

“Jesse, pull back.” Hanzo called, sensing the danger of Jesse being so close to those shotguns and in such an angry state of mind.

“No! You ruined everything, you took everything. You deserve what’s comin’,” Jesse shouted, voice shaky with hurt and anger. He advanced on Reaper even though his gun was effective at a safe range, as if he needed to look Reaper in the eye to do it.

Jack caught the slight turn of Reaper’s mask towards Angela and Jack knew what he would see on Gabriel’s face if it was visible.

Jesse was a fast draw, one of the fastest, but Gabriel had trained him, knew all of his tells, could read the twitch of his fingers and shift of his feet. The crack of Reaper’s shotgun echoed in the room, catching Jesse’s metal arm right at the joint, throwing him off balance, making him shout out in pain and miss the shot aimed directly at Gabriel’s head. Gabriel rushed in closer and knocked Jesse over the head with his other gun, leaving Jesse to crumple to the floor. Moira just laughed.

“Jesse!” Hanzo roared. Reaper grunted as an arrow hit him directly in the shoulder as Hanzo drew his bow again and unleashed it with a shout, “Ryū ga waga teki wo kurau!”

Hanzo’s twin dragons tore through the room consuming most of the soldiers, forcing Moira to fade out of their path and Reaper to melt into his wraith form. He ghosted towards Jack, swirled around him in a way that would look like a taunt to the others in the room, but Jack felt him slip something into his pocket as he passed.

The dragons ripped the room apart, downing all the Talon soldiers until only Moira and Reaper were left, the latter already growling for Moira to follow as he teleported out of the room.

“What an interesting development,” Moira said, training a mocking smile on Hanzo as he crouched over Jesse, laughing and disappearing as Hanzo loosed another arrow towards her.

Angela rushed over to Jesse, dropping onto her knees beside him and using her staff to undo the damage to his head and the non-mechanical parts of his left arm.

“He will be fine,” she assured Hanzo, who had a white-knuckled grip on Jesse’s fallen hat. “The damage is mostly to his mechanical prosthetic and Torbjörn can have that fixed in no time. He was lucky. If Gabriel had hit his chest at that range I would have struggled to help him.”

It wasn’t luck, Jack knew that. The shot had only been to throw Jesse off balance, the knock to the head carefully placed to be as safe as possible. They knew that Gabriel didn’t  _ miss _ , but they chose to believe Jesse had gotten lucky. It was for the best, he supposed. But he also knew what attacking Jesse like that must have cost Gabriel. His fingers closed around the scrap of paper dropped into his pocket, knowing that a place and time would be scrawled onto it.

Moira had taken the file with her, so it was likely that Talon had gotten what it wanted after all, but they had at least limited the civilian casualties and cut their stay in Monaco short. Small victories.

They climbed back onto their jet after a short conversation with local authorities about what had happened. Jack had almost forgotten how grateful people used to be towards Overwatch, and apparently were beginning to be again. Angela hadn’t woken Jesse up but was monitoring him closely. Jack wondered if she had suspicions, how  _ easy _ it would have been for Reaper to have finished Jesse. She probably didn’t, they all seemed to have given up on Gabriel. It almost pissed Jack off, but it was also exactly what they needed everyone to think.

Jack forced himself to wait to look at the scrap of paper until he was safely back in his own quarters. There were too many cameras on the jet, he didn’t want anyone innocently asking after what he’d been looking at.

On the paper were two dates, one from the past and one in a few days’ time. He recognised the old date, it marked the day they’d had to hole up in a safe house in Texas during the crisis, decommissioned now and gathering dust, but still there. The date for a few days’ time marked when Gabriel would be waiting for him there.

Jack informed Winston he’d be gone for a while, evading what few questions Winston asked him by grunting that he had things to do that didn’t concern Overwatch. Winston didn’t push him; Jack was fairly sure he was worried that if he did push Jack, he wouldn’t come back.

****

Jack packed a bag and left for Texas. He took trains and boats and busses, all paid for in cash on the day, slower than jets certainly, but also much harder to track. He was meticulous about checking whether or not he was being followed, used to this routine after eight years of it, looping his route around in nonsensical directions as he moved vaguely towards Texas, before finally arriving on the date Gabriel had said.

The safehouse was still there, sat alone, tucked away and inconspicuous, away from populated areas and inside a signal dead zone, the way a safe house during an omnic crisis needed to be. Jack took a deep breath, slinging his small bag over his shoulder and pushing the door open.

“Hey, Jackie.” Gabriel greeted him as he stood by the stove, cooking something that smelled spicy and delicious. Jack felt eight years of exhaustion leave him the moment he saw him.

They’d been communicating through burner phones, paper, and cryptic messages only each other would understand, but it had been a long time since they had actually been able to see one another. Months.

“Hey, Gabe.” Jack’s voice cracked, dropping his bag on the floor and coming up behind Gabe, wrapping his arms around him and burying his face in Gabriel’s hair. He’d let it grow long in the past eight years, reaching down past his shoulders. It was beautiful.

His condition had worsened though; Jack could see it despite the time they had spent apart. More patches of total decay on Gabriel’s skin, the overall tone of which had an unhealthy grey tinge to it. His eyes were a fog of red and black, smoke seeping off parts of him in a way he clearly couldn’t control. He dropped the spatula once, the utensil dropping into the pan as his hand slipped into a black cloud before reforming again. Neither of them commented on it.

“How’s – ” Gabriel tripped on his words and took a breath. “How’s Jesse?” He didn’t try to hide the way his voice shook from Jack.

“He’s fine, Torbjörn even upgraded his arm. Gabe, he’s fine.”

“Hmn.” Gabe let out a half laugh, self-depreciating. “No, he isn’t.”

“He’ll understand.”

“I hope so. Does anyone suspect anything?”

“No.”

“Means we’re doing this well I guess. I know that should make me feel better...”

“But it doesn’t,” Jack finished for him, understanding what he meant.

They ate curled together on the old couch still sat in the small living area of the house, the same one they’d curled together on what felt like a lifetime ago. They didn’t say much as they ate, shoving their emptied plates onto the coffee table and lying down on the couch, Gabe’s still-strong arms coming up around Jack as he burrowed into Gabriel’s chest.

“How long do we have?” Jack asked. It was his least favourite question because the answer was never enough.

“Just a day,” Gabe breathed back, holding Jack a little tighter.

Jack looked up and brushed one of Gabe’s long locks of hair back behind his ear, Gabe giving him a soft smile as Jack leant up to kiss him. They kissed for a long time, lazily making out on the couch and reminding Jack almost painfully of the last time they had been here. The fact that the middle of a war had been a happier time for them wasn’t fair.

They ran their hands over each other, relearning the map of their bodies. Gabriel moved away from Jack’s lips only to tuck kisses against the couple of new scars on his body before coming back to his mouth. They still fit together perfectly, almost exactly the same size. They slotted together like they belonged like that, and Jack would argue that they did.

He hadn’t forgotten the way Gabriel tasted, or the feel of his touch, but having it back again after so long without him was almost overwhelming and eventually Jack grew more frantic, nudging Gabe onto his back so that he could straddle his hips.

“You wanna take this to the bedroom, Jackie?” Gabe asked between kisses, as Jack started to rock his hips down against Gabe, feeling them both starting to get hard through their clothes.

Jack nodded, wrapping his legs around Gabe’s waist and burying his hands in his long hair as he let Gabe carry him to the bedroom; he was too old to be carried into bedrooms, but somehow Gabriel always made him feel young again. Gabriel dropped him down onto the bed, crawling up after him and smirking as Jack let his legs fall open, settling between them easily.

“Too many clothes,” Gabe murmured as he laid kisses under Jack’s jaw, deftly undoing Jacks pants with his free hand.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. He pulled Gabe’s shirt up and off him, the pair of them separating only long enough to yank off their clothes, falling back together with nothing between them.

Jack gasped as he felt the thick, hot press of Gabriel’s cock against his own. Gabriel chuckled about him always being sensitive as he rolled his hips against him.

“Please say you brought lube with you,” Jack whined as Gabe ran a finger up the length of his cock, hitching his legs around Gabriel’s waist.

“As if I’d come all the way out here to see you then leave you unsatisfied,” Gabriel tsked, reaching over to the bedside drawer where he had apparently already stashed the supplies.

Gabe waggled the bottle at him and Jack groaned. It was that awful strawberry flavoured stuff that Jack had described once as making Gabriel taste like cotton candy and Gabe had  _ never _ let him forget it.

“Guess who’s gunna have the candy-ass tonight,” Gabe teased, making Jack groan even louder. He lapped Gabe’s shoulder and bemoaned why exactly this was the man he’d fallen in love with.

“Shut up.”

“Aw don’t be like that Sunshine, you always taste good anyway.” Gabe grinned, dropping his head and kissing a path down Jack’s chest, pausing to suck at his nipples before working his way down to press teasing kisses against the base of Jack’s cock.

Jack moaned freely as Gabe took one of Jack’s balls into his mouth, rolling it around on his tongue and sucking, letting it slip from his mouth to lavish the same attention on the other one. Jack heard the cap of the lube open and felt a slick finger massaging around his entrance as Gabe licked his way up from the base of his cock to the tip.

Jack cried out as Gabe simultaneously wrapped his lips around the head of Jack’s cock and slipped his finger in to the first knuckle. He buried his hands in Gabe’s hair, knowing how Gabriel liked his hair pulled. Gabe threw his head back and hummed enthusiastically around Jack’s cock, sinking deeper with both his mouth and finger.

Gabe sucked him and stretched him in tandem, pressing a second finger inside Jack as he worked his tongue into Jack’s slit. Gabe scissored his fingers, twisting and stroking across Jack’s prostate intermittently, leaving him writhing up off the bed and moaning like a whore.

“You keep going like that, and I’m not gunna last,” Jack panted. They were both too old to go more than once in a short span of time, super serum or not.

Gabe pulled off Jack’s cock as he worked another finger inside him, kissing the hollow of his hip and grinning into his skin as he nudged his fingers against his sweet spot again.

“Seriously,” Jack gasped, “I don’t want this to be over before it’s started.”

Gabe took pity on Jack and stopped torturing his prostate, leaning up to kiss his lips instead as he worked a fourth finger inside Jack, swallowing his moans.

“I’m ready.”

“Yeah,” Gabe agreed, gently pulling his fingers free and slicking up his cock.

He kissed Jack deeply, slipping his tongue into Jack’s mouth as the blunt head of his cock pushed against Jack’s hole. Jack moaned openly as Gabe pressed inside him in one slow press, only stopping when his hips were flush against Jack’s ass. He held still, letting Jack relax and adjust to his girth, hitching Jack’s legs up onto his shoulders when he groaned at him to move.

Gabe started slow, rolling and twisting his hips at a torturous pace, rutting into Jack more than fucking him, using the hand not propping himself up to tweak at his nipples until Jack was begging him to please fuck him properly. With a devastating smirk Gabe started pounding into Jack in earnest, fucking him so hard Jack was moving up the bed, having to brace a hand against the headboard to keep still, letting Gabe fuck him even harder than before.

Gabe bent Jack in half as he leant down to steal kisses. They were difficult and uncoordinated as Gabe fucked into Jack, but he knew how much Jack liked to be kissed. Gabe covered Jack’s body with his own, holding him tight and slowing his pace again, grinding into Jack’s sweet-spot on every thrust of his hips, drawing out just to the tip and pushing back in as hard and as deep as he could reach.

Jack wrapped his arms around Gabe’s back and clung on, gasping when Gabe hoisted them both up, leaving Gabe on his knees and Jack impaled on his cock. The new position let Gabe get deeper, using his arms to help Jack bounce up and down on his cock. 

“God you feel so good Jackie, so tight around my cock, taking it so well.” Gabe murmured a never ending stream of utter filth in his ear as he thrust up into Jack, leaving him unsure if he was moaning from the sensations coursing through him or from Gabe’s words.

Gabe sucked on his neck and groaned as Jack tightened his muscles around Gabe’s cock as best he could, rolling his hips and relishing the feeling of Gabriel’s nails running down his back. Smoke streamed off parts of his body, parts of him phasing in and out of solidity as Gabe’s tightly-kept control started to falter from the feeling of Jack.

Jack pushed Gabe, toppling them both backwards, leaving Gabe’s head close to the foot of the bed and Jack perched on top of him. With a smirk of his own Jack braced his hands against Gabe’s chest, arched his back and started riding Gabe hard, panting and moaning wantonly every time Gabe thrust up to slam into his prostate.

“You close, Sunshine?” Gabe grunted. Jack was able to tell just from the cadence of his voice that Gabe was asking because he was closing in on his own climax. Jack felt like he’d been balancing on the edge since they started and nodded. “You need my hand? Or are you gunna come just on my cock?”

“Just your cock,” Jack whimpered, voice faltering as Gabe continued to hammer into him.

“Fuck, yeah,” Gabe panted, planting his feet on the bed and wrapping his large hands around Jack’s hips. He used the leverage to slam Jack down onto his cock even harder and faster than before.  “God, I love you,” Gabriel growled. Jack whimpered and came hard as Gabriel continued to fuck him.

Jack fell forward against him, boneless in his post orgasmic bliss and almost purring as Gabe’s arms came up around him, holding him tight and thrusting into him a handful of times before Jack felt him come deep inside him.

They collapsed together, kissing languidly. Gabe’s hand gently ran over Jack’s lower back and sent him into a light slumber before Gabe had even pulled out. Eventually Gabe gently shook Jack awake and carefully pulled out, kissing Jack as he did before climbing out of bed and returning with a damp cloth which he used to clean both of them off before tossing it away and slipping back into bed with Jack.

Jack instantly cuddled up against him, slinging an arm over Gabriel’s chest and luxuriating in just getting to be with him again, for however brief a time. He couldn’t help it as it grew a little melancholy, holding onto Gabe tighter as he tried not to think about how they’d have to leave each other again the next day.

“You alright, Sunshine?” Gabe asked, no doubt noticing the more desperate cling of Jack’s arms.

“This wasn’t supposed to take so long.”

“I know cariño, but I’m close, I can feel it.”

“Eight years.”

“I know.”

“I miss you.”

“I’m right here.”

“You know what I mean. I barely see you. Eight years of only sporadic meetings when we’re sure no one will catch us.”

“Ogundimu trusts me, I’ll have enough to bring them down for good soon,” Gabe said gently, pulling Jack close and kissing him softly, soothing Jack just as he intended.

“And Moira?” Jack asked tightly, feeling Gabe tense up against him at her name.

“I think she’s close to a solution. The file from Monaco was important to her research,” Gabe replied, strain ghosting through his voice. She was the real reason they hadn’t brought Talon to its knees yet. In reality, they’d had enough intel to deal Talon a devastating blow for years, more than enough to bring it down far enough for world authorities to finish the job. But they needed Moira, they needed her to help Gabe, and she was only going to do that while it was in her interests to keep Gabriel alive.

SEP had affected them both differently, had affected every person on the programme differently. Jack’s agility, strength, and endurance had gone off the scales; Gabe had always joked that he looked like Captain America, so it was only fitting. Gabriel had reacted strangely. He got the strength and endurance like everyone else had, but there had been side effects. His body hadn’t been able to cope with the serum as well and his cells had started to break down and decay at an accelerated rate, but he’d survived long enough that the serum  _ had _ taken effect, meaning the serum forced his cells to regenerate to match the decay. It allowed him to shadow step and wraith, survive wounds that should easily be mortal.

But it was also killing him.

Gabriel’s genetic structure was breaking down faster than the serum could repair it, his condition slowly getting worse as the years went on. Angela had had no idea how to help, as it was far from her field of expertise. It was why they had recruited Moira in the first place; a vain belief that she could help him blinding them both to her real agendas, worming her way into Overwatch and causing chaos and failure within the organisation. She’d made it worse before she’d made it better.  _ Of course _ she had, she’d wanted to know what would happen if Gabriel could disintegrate into a ghost, how far the degenerative process could be sped up to make him the most efficient killer. He’d been a science experiment.

But he was no use to her dead. He was a one-of-a-kind specimen and she didn’t want to lose him. So she was looking for something to repair his disintegrating genetics – though Gabe imagined she only planned to give him enough to keep him alive, not to fix him.

“She’s not going to just hand it over.”

“I fully intend to take it out of her dead hands,” Jack growled, startling himself with the venom in his tone.

“We both will,” Gabriel replied soothingly, running and hand up and down Jack’s back.

Gabriel phased in and out of smoke more when he was tired, unable to maintain so much focus on keeping his form together. It left Jack in a cocoon of smoke and skin and Gabriel held him tightly, even as a ghost.

_ Fuck the world _ , Jack thought, he’d given it enough. He just wanted to cure Gabriel, to have him back.

****

They were slow the next day. They spent the whole morning in bed, Jack being kissed awake for the first time in months and Gabe sliding down his body with a mischievous smile before taking him in his mouth. Gabe worked Jack up until he was ready to come, pulling off just before Jack found his release and murmuring “ _ fuck me, Jack” _ into the skin at Jack’s hips.

By the time they made it out of bed the sun was high in the sky. They stayed close together as they moved about the kitchen, putting together the food Gabriel had brought with him for lunch, knowing they’d both have to go soon. 

They didn’t talk much; there was too much to say and not enough time to say it. It was easier to speak with actions:  _ I love you _ written in every touch,  _ I’ll never stop _ assured in a smile. They’d been through so much together they were good at communicating without talking now. Jack wished they would have time again soon; he missed hearing Gabe ramble about his day.

It was always difficult to leave again. They tried to do it with as little fanfare as possible, Gabriel pulling Jack close and kissing his forehead as he pushed a new burner phone into his hand and murmured  _ soon _ as a promise. Jack wasn’t sure if he meant he’d see him again soon, or it would be over soon. He hoped for both, but mostly for the latter.

****

Jack took his time getting back to base, stopping in Dorado to gather some intel on what LumériCo was up to. He hoped to find something that would interest Overwatch, but came up empty. No one asked where he had been when he returned. 

Weeks continued to tick by. The team in Volskaya returned victorious, having thoroughly halted Talon’s attempt to control the large Russian Mechs. This victory, thankfully, lifted the heavy atmosphere that had sunk over the base since the encounter with Reaper. 

It was nice to have a victory, but with everything Talon  _ was  _ managing to get it’s hands on, Jack couldn’t help but fear that something was brewing.

Jack didn’t hear from Gabe for weeks. He never contacted Gabriel; rather, he always reached out when it was secure for him to do so. It was difficult with an operative like Sombra working beside him. The burner phone sat untouched and tucked away, Jack checking it every day with no luck.

By the second month of silence, Jack was growing agitated at having heard nothing. Were it not for reported sightings of Reaper with Talon every now and then Jack would have started to fear the worst; still, the silent phone seemed to taunt him. Jack worried at his lip as he watched the water, as it twinkled with stars in the night and tried not to let his worries consume him.

“There is something coming. I think you sense it too.” Jack jumped slightly as Genji spoke. How he made his metal feet move silently across the hard roof of the base was a mystery to Jack.

“Don’t sneak up on me,” Jack grumbled, turning back to look out at the sea as Genji sat down beside him.

“I sit here often, it is an easy place to think. I did not know you came here also.”

“I don’t usually.”

“But there is a lot to think about at the moment,” Genji finished more sagely than Jack was comfortable with, coming from someone he had once seen dare a drunken Jesse to shoot an apple off his head.

“Something like that.”

“Talon is preparing, though for what I do not know. I have meditated for long hours and cannot think of what it might be. But either way, Commander, you know a fight is coming.”

“I’m not your commander.”

“I worry what you will do.”

“When did you get so cryptic?” Jack grouched, making a soft, slightly mechanical laugh spill from Genji.

“There is something driving you, Commander, that drove you to re-join us. Something none of us has quite figured out yet. Some think it’s revenge, others duty, others hurt. Fareeha believes you simply do not know how to do anything else. I do not think they are right.”

“That so?”

“Do you want to save him?” Genji asked, and honestly Jack was surprised it was the first time he had been asked it. A gentle question put to a very hardened man. A question he couldn’t even begin to answer, as what was really happening was so very far from what they all thought.

“What I want has never really mattered,” Jack replied before sighing deeply. Genji sat patiently waiting for a real answer. “I want Gabriel back. How could I not? But the Reaper that we know now, that is not him.”

Genji watched him closely for a few moments before seeming satisfied with the answer and standing.

“Thank you, Commander. We would all like him back, but I needed to know that you understood that he was gone,” Genji said, metal hand squeezing Jack’s shoulder as he turned to leave him in peace.

“I’m not your Commander,” Jack replied tiredly. Genji let out another soft mechanical laugh.

He couldn’t call himself commander and lie to them this much.

****

It all came to a head on a slow Sunday another three weeks later. Overwatch had been dealing with Talon incursions constantly, but the last couple of days had been quiet, leaving everyone on edge. Jack went back to his quarters to check his phone, as he did six times a day, and this time there was something waiting for him.

There was a message, and a huge datafile. The message made Jack’s heart stutter in his chest.

_ It’s time, move fast. _

Jack opened the file, barely even sparing a thought for the fact that if they had been found out then Sombra could be sending anything via this large file. The information inside it nearly winded him — all of Talon’s plans distilled into one succinct file. Their bases, their plans, their planned movements. Assassinations they had carried out and planned to carry out, manoeuvres they were pulling with various governments, which important people had been bribed, blackmailed, or replaced. Their entire infrastructure was in Jack’s hands. He downloaded it onto a datapad, took a breath, and read it all.

Overwatch knew Ogundimu wanted a new omnic war. They hadn’t imagined that he was trying to build a new omnium, but he was. Talon had been stealing the resources for months and it was nearly finished; Gabriel had only just been told. They had to bring Talon down now or they would succeed in starting another war. It didn’t matter that Moira hadn’t found a cure yet, they had no choice.

Gabriel had highlighted a date – today’s and tomorrow’s. Jack opened the sub file and found that the leaders of Talon were having a meeting, all together, all in the same place, an extremely rare opportunity. Overwatch had to take it. They had to move on Talon now.

“Athena, call an emergency meeting. Core team only.”

“Yes, Soldier76.”

Steeling himself for the conversation he was about to be forced to have with his team, his family, Jack headed to the briefing room with a tight grip on the datapad.

Everyone responded quickly, some reaching the briefing room before Jack, and the rest came in shortly after. In less than five minutes all the old and new core agents of Overwatch were in the room, waiting to hear that Jack had been lying to them all, though he supposed they didn’t know they were waiting for that yet.

“What’s this about, Jack? Athena said it was an emergency,” Fareeha asked, straight to business as always.

“It is,” he said. They were all sat straight, ready to listen and respond to their Strike Commander, even though he’d been insisting that wasn’t his title anymore. “This is going to be difficult,” Jack admitted, sparing a glance for Jesse who leaned casually against the door, completely unaware that Jack was about to twist a knife Jesse hadn’t even realised was in his back.

Jack plugged in the datapad and let the information spill onto the large screen along the wall behind him. He waited for them to digest what they were seeing.

“Jack that’s – that’s…” Angela covered her mouth in shock.

“That’s  _ Talon _ ,” Winston gawped. “All of it, every mission past and present every plan every… _ everything _ . My god, we need to move. Look at what they’re planning, we need to –”

“How did you get that?” Fareeha cut in, asking the question on everyone’s awed lips.

“There’s no gentle way to say this, just know that I’m sorry it had to be this way,” Jack said to steady himself, concern dawning on a lot of the faces looking at him. “Almost ten years ago Gabriel and I realised that Overwatch and Blackwatch had been compromised. We had no idea where the breaches were, how far the corruption spread, or how to root it out. We also knew that Talon was beating us. With all the bureaucracy we weren’t even putting up a decent fight against them, probably because half the politicians were being bribed or blackmailed or worse.”

“Yeah. Then Gabe decided if you can’t beat ‘em better fucking join them,” Jesse said tiredly, like he knew this story, like he’d gone over it in his head a thousand times.

“No. No he didn’t, Jesse,” Jack replied and Jesse’s eyes snapped to him. None of the pretend lethargy could be found in them now — they were the sharp eyes that Jesse pretended he didn’t have. “We dismantled Overwatch ourselves. We pretended to fight, to be drifting apart. Gabriel played the part of the jaded loose cannon, bored of all the red tape, while I carefully and continually let Overwatch’s relationship with the UN and the public decay. Moira was the most dangerous mole. Gabe let her experiment on him, pretended to be brought in by her thinking, gained her trust, made her believe that with the right push, he’d turn over to Talon.”

“What are you saying Jack?” Jesse asked, fists clenched. His posture told Jack he’d figured it out already, but he wasn’t ready to accept it.

“We blew the Swiss base up together. Gabriel has been working against Talon from the inside for eight years to give us the chance to finally bring them down for good. The file is from him. He never betrayed us.”

Silence blanketed the room for almost a full minute as the people who had thought they knew him and Gabriel tried to digest what they had just been told. The new agents were clearly shocked by the revelation but wore only mild surprise compared to the looks of betrayed horror scrawled across other faces in the room.

“No.” Jesse broke the silence with a single word, walking out of the room and slamming the door behind him.

“Jack, you couldn’t have told us?” Lena said, usual bounce gone from her voice as she looked at him forlornly.

“No. The more people who knew, the more risk to Gabriel’s life. Am I right?” 

Fareeha answered in his place, looking over to Jack for confirmation. He nodded. “It was a good plan and it worked, that’s what we should be focusing on,” she finished, a hardness to her voice that Jack recognised from her mother whenever she was struggling between duty and friendship.

“But Jack, he’s been hunting agents,” Angela said quietly. “I understand the need to maintain his cover, but killing old agents?”

“They were traitors. He cross-referenced the list with Talon’s agent database and found the moles. He was taking them out, or informing me of their identity if he couldn’t find them, to ensure Overwatch was not compromised again.”

“He attacked Jesse,” Hanzo interjected, voice dangerously cold.

“Jesse attacked him. Jesse was a foot away from the barrel of his shotgun and only got hit in a very easily fixable place and knocked over the head. Winston, when he came for the list did anyone actually get hurt?”

“Well, no. But Athena was badly damaged.”

“You’re fine, Athena’s fine, and Gabriel’s cover was maintained.”

“He still gave Talon that list. Some may have been traitors but there were innocent agents on there.”

“He altered the information on the list before handing it over, after he’d sorted the innocent from the traitors.”

“Oh.”

“Look. I know we betrayed your trust. That we have probably destroyed our relationship with all of you, some I fear irreparably, but we did it all for this moment right here and now we need your help to finish this.”

“Of course we will,” Winston said. Really, even if none of them ever forgave either of them, Overwatch would still have to finish this with them. They wouldn’t be much of a peace keeping force if they ignored the intel on Talon out of spite. “Everyone, get your gear, I’m sending jet assignments. We won’t all fit in one and this seems like an all or nothing kind of fight. We’re out of here in ten minutes.”

****

Everyone was in the jets within ten minutes, even Jesse, though he looked murderous. Jack was glad Winston assigned him to a different jet; they didn’t have enough time to speak properly. And it was Gabriel that needed to speak to him anyway.

Jack was sharing a jet with Fareeha, Zarya, Mei-Ling, Brigitte, and Reinhardt. Silence reigned over the ship. Reinhardt sat in contemplative quiet – unusual for him – Brigitte beside him, clipping her hair out of the way. Zarya and Mei-Ling sat to the side, murmuring between them, more subdued than usual. Jack was surprised when Fareeha came and sat down beside him.

“It was a good plan, and it may have just saved millions of lives.”

“Only if we pull this off.”

“We will,” she said confidently. Somehow it never came off as cocky from Fareeha, just unflinching belief, another thing she got from her mother.

“You’re allowed to be angry, Fareeha,” Jack sighed. She so often pushed her own feelings into the backseat.

“I know, but I’m not. Your plan was sound and has worked. Millions of lives against some hurt feelings is a trade I’m happy to make,” she replied, and Jack believed her. She’d always been a logical one. “It must have been hard on you, though. We believed Gabriel was gone, you knew he wasn’t, yet he was just out of reach. You two used to live in each other’s pockets.”

“It’s been hard. We would see each other occasionally, but…”

“But it wasn’t the same.” She nodded in understanding. “I want to say something that no one else is going to, Jack, on behalf of Overwatch and everyone you’ve just saved.”

“Oh?”

“Thank you.”  

“Oh.”

“Now get ready, old man, we’re almost there.”

Their jets slipped into stealth mode. Gabriel’s intel had shown them the way to slip through Talon’s sensors, but everyone still held their breath as they passed into range. Everyone released their held breath in unison when no missiles were fired their way. They landed almost a mile out, safely out of visual range, setting down and following the schematics Gabriel had sent. It led them to a secret tunnel that allowed access to the compound. The passcode Gabriel had sent checked out and the door slid open to reveal a narrow passage.

“This is it. When we get inside, split into teams. Remember, don’t get drawn into skirmishes, keep focused, and don’t let any of the leaders escape. Pharah, when the operation begins inform the local authorities, have them secure the perimeter,” Jack reminded everyone, though he was sure they all knew the plan back to front by now. Fareeha nodded sharply, the message already ready to send. 

“Alright, let’s move out.”

They pressed into the tunnel, moving as quietly as they could. A little while later they reached a door. There would be no more sneaking when they opened it, it was clear who they were. They were going to split off into four groups, each taking a different path through the building and effectively cutting off any escape routes. They should have the building swarmed in minutes.

Turing to check they were ready and receiving resolute nods from the team, Jack kicked the door open.

They spilled into the room, taking down the Talon soldiers stationed there in seconds while the alarm blared through the building. Seamlessly they split into their four teams and pressed on through the building, Jack leading his team down the most direct route to the meeting room.

Resistance was heavy, but Talon soldiers weren’t prepared to face fully drilled and cohesive Overwatch strike teams without their leaders helping them, so they cut through Talon’s thugs like a knife through warm butter. They reached the foyer outside the meeting room, but as they regrouped for a moment to press through into the room, the door was smashed off its hinges. The smoke cleared to reveal Doomfist and the rest of Talon’s leadership.

“I don’t remember inviting you,” Ogundimu taunted. Jack crouched to avoid a punch that came rocketing towards him, rolling out of the way just in time.

“The building is under Overwatch’s control. Surrender,” Jack barked, jumping back up to his feet. He was answered only by Moira’s mocking laugh.

“Do you believe we are not equipped to deal with  _ you _ ?” Maximilien asked, a shield forming in front of his omnic form as he raised another hand, modified into some kind of weapon.

Korpal was pulling out some kind of light bending technology, similar to the kind used by Satya, Overwatch’s latest recruit. Thanks to her, they’d expected Korpal’s presence. Five more leaders stood behind them, mostly successful businessmen or politicians, brandishing dangerous looking weapons. And behind them, Reaper and Moira, Reaper’s shotguns out and Moira’s hands glowing with a golden yellow and murky purple.

“I’d wager you’ve made some miscalculations,” Jack bit back as the three other teams spilled into the room. Moira merely laughed again. It grated on him more than any other sound in the world.

“I never miscalculate,” Maximilien replied, his metal face seeming to smirk despite its unchanging nature.

“You always were far too full of yourself,” came Reaper’s growl from the back lines. Maximilien didn’t even have time to process his words before Reaper fired into the back of his head point blank.

There was a split second of stunned silence, when the smirk slipped from Moira’s face for just a moment, before all hell broke loose.

Talon started firing wildly at both Gabe and Overwatch, forcing him to enter his wraith form. He slipped through the chaos and rematerialized at Jack’s side, the pair of them falling into sync as if they had never been apart. Together they began to push through the fighting towards Moira, her eyes locking onto them as they got closer.

“How interesting,” she murmured, just loud enough for them to hear, and with a mocking wave of her fingers she faded out of view.

“Fuck!” Jack swore as Gabe spun on his heel to watch the door.

“There, she’s escaping,” Gabe grunted. Jack turned just in time to see the whip of her coat out the door.

They set off after her, Jack running at full tilt with Gabriel ghosting along beside him, able to move faster in that form. They chased her through the building and out into the open courtyard. The open space offered Jack his first opportunity to fire shots at her retreating form before being forced to dive out of the way as a dark purple biotic orb was shot towards them. Gabriel used the momentary distraction to cut off her exit, blocking the door she was headed for and trapping her in the courtyard with them.

“You’re trapped, O’Deorain. Surrender.”

“Oh no, I like my chances out here,” Moira taunted. Jack only had time to puzzle over her words for a moment before the vibrating sound of a sniper’s bullet rang out and pain blossomed in his shoulder, sending him to his knees.

“ _ Widowmaker _ ,” Gabriel cursed, backing up into the doorway in an attempt to get some cover. “Jackie, move!”

There was a low wall a few feet away that Jack could take cover behind, but he knew the chances of him making it before she loosed another shot were miniscule. His enhanced ears picked up an almost familiar  _ whisper-clink _ sound followed by a soft thud, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it as he wasn’t even half way to the wall before he felt another bullet hit him.

There was a moment of confusion when instead of hitting the ground like he expected, the pain in his shoulder receded, before a voice crackled through his comms system.

“I’ve got you covered,” Ana’s steady voice spilled over the comms, leaving Jack gasping and looking up to the rooftops. “Amélie is taking a little nap. Stay focused, Jack.”

“Still like your chances, O’Deorain?” Jack asked, standing straight and bracing his gun against his shoulder as telltale yellow darts hit his body.

“Indeed I do,” she replied, drawing a thin vial of yellow liquid out of her pocket. “Call it an insurance policy.”

“If that’s some kind of bomb then rest assured I’ll just be happy knowing we took you with us,” Gabe rumbled out from behind her. Jack shared the sentiment.

“It’s nothing so primitive,” she scowled, as if the very suggestion that she would deal with anything as crass as a bomb was offensive to her.

“Then what?” Jack grit out as she offered no further information, clearly waiting for them to ask.

“It’s exactly what you want. In truth, I cured Gabriel’s little problem months ago, I just wasn’t quite ready to share that information yet. But as you’re forcing my hand…”

“Jack…” Gabriel started, both of their eyes fixed on the vial.

“Time to decide on your priorities,” Moira said, before throwing the fragile vial in a high arc and fading out of sight.

“Fuck,” Jack shouted at the same time as Gabe, Ana swearing over the comms as her sleep dart missed its mark and Moira slipped from view again.

Gabriel was frozen in place as the vial soared through the air. Chase Moira or catch the vial — it wasn’t even a question for Jack as he tore across the courtyard, leaping forward with his hand outstretched. He brought the vial into his chest and protected it with his body as he crashed to the floor.

“Ana, do you have eyes on her?”

“She’s vanished. I’m monitoring the area from the north eastern rooftop.”

“We should have chased her,” Gabriel berated himself as he crouched down next to Jack and helped him to sit up. “We’ll never find her now.”

“As if I would ever choose her over you.”

“That could be a vial of poison for all we know.”

“We’ll have Angela run some tests.”

“We could have let her go for nothing.”

“I wouldn’t call a chance for a life together nothing.” Jack smiled gently, reaching up to pull Gabriel’s mask off, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.

“I see some things never change,” Ana said wryly over the comms.

Eventually Winston, Angela, Reinhardt, and Fareeha made it out onto the courtyard. Fareeha’s face was thunderous, masking a deep hurt building in her eyes as they locked onto the north-eastern rooftop.

“What happened?” Winston asked.

“Moira escaped. She used this to distract us and vanished.”

“What is it?” Angela asked, Jack allowing her to take the vial to examine it more closely.

“She claimed it would cure Gabriel. Can you find out if she’s lying?”

“Of course, a few tests should tell me if it is meant to harm or help, at least.” Angela agreed easily before an awkward silence spread over the small group. All except Fareeha eyed Gabriel warily.

“Now is neither the time nor the place for the conversations that need to happen.” Fareeha eventually broke the silence, voice steely and clearly aimed at the woman perched on the rooftop as much as Jack and Gabriel.

Everyone heeded Fareeha’s words and got to work. They scanned the area for signs of Moira but came up empty, eventually accepting that for now, at least, she was lost to them. They retrieved Amélie from the rooftop, shackling her and hoping beyond hope that there might be something Angela could do to bring back the woman they’d once known.

Of the leaders, two had survived. Having the good sense to surrender when the others fell, they were incarcerated by Overwatch, ready to be handed over to the UN. What surprised Jack and shocked Gabriel was the third individual Overwatch had in custody.

“We found her in the ventilation system, using some kind of device,” Genji explained, indicating the nonchalant looking Sombra.

“Sombra doesn’t get caught,” Gabriel cautioned.

“A little gratitude would be nice, Gabriel.”

“For what?”

“Really? You think any of your little transmissions got past me unnoticed? What kind of security system do you think I’m running here?  _ ‘Dear Jackie, I miss you so so much, the mean Talon lady is still experimenting on me with no progress –’ _

“Enough,” Gabriel growled, holding up an irritated hand to silence her.

“And you know there are cameras in that tunnel you used, right? I mean,  _ obviously _ . Good thing someone around here knows how to loop a visual feed. Amateurs.”

“Why did you help us?”

“Talon wasn’t very useful anymore. I don’t want another war, that’s how people die.”

“We could have helped you.”

“Ha. I think it was pretty obvious who needed the help in this relationship. Besides, I don’t like these organisations. It’s always the little people who get squished. I’ll be watching you, Over _ watch _ .” Sombra warned before translocating straight out of her shackles and disappearing.

None of them were entirely sure what to make of the encounter.

They cleared out the headquarters, taking the leaders into Overwatch custody and leaving the foot soldiers for local law enforcement to deal with. They had enough information on the survivors that there was no way for them to squirm their way out of the life-sentence they were both going to get, and they would stay in Overwatch custody until after their sentencing. They weren’t taking any chances this time.

The flight back was quiet and tense. Jesse refused to even acknowledge Gabe and had switched places with Lúcio to avoid riding back with them. Lúcio was now forced to sit quietly as Ana attempted to speak with Fareeha, to explain herself.

“It was easier for me to be a ghost, ḥabībti. So many people were after me, you were safer if I wasn’t around you.”

“It wasn’t easier on me,” Fareeha replied quietly, removing herself into the cockpit to end any further attempts at conversation.

Silence stretched out over the jet for almost an hour before Gabriel finally broke it.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, Gabriel. That little show the pair of you put on for me in Egypt was cute, but I’ve known the two of you far too long to believe it,” she shrugged, making Jack feel a little like a small child being scolded for attempting to lie to his mother.

“So why not say so then?”

“There had to be a good reason why you were going to such lengths to convince everyone you hated each other. It didn’t take too much to figure out the rest. It was a good plan,” she said. Jack smiled sadly at the way her words echoed Fareeha’s.

The next few weeks were hard. So many members of the team were caught between being glad Talon was gone and feeling a deep betrayal from all three of their old commanders. On the second day, Jack watched Gabriel’s heart break as Jesse packed a bag and left without a word. Hanzo followed him, but paused beside Gabriel.

“He has always wanted to see the cherry blossoms in Hanamura. He is hurt, but he will return. If there is anything I have learnt, it is that you do not give up on your family, and Jesse’s heart is far too large to want to lose you again,” Hanzo said before following Jesse out of the base. The assurance was unexpected from him.  

Five weeks of Overwatch once again having to juggle public relations and enquiries from the UN passed – though thankfully Jack was not the one having to deal with it this time – before there was an excited knocking on the door to Jack’s quarters. He and Gabriel had been living there, basking in just being able to be around each other again.

Jack had expected it to be Lena, given the frenzy of the knocking. He was surprised to see Angela on the other side when the door slid open.

“Angela?”

“Gabriel, are you in here?” she asked, uncharacteristically barging past Jack to find Gabriel in the little kitchenette. “It’ll work,” she announced, buzzing with excitement.

“What?”

“I’ve run the tests a thousand times and though it’s not my area of expertise I am  _ sure _ it will work.”

“You mean, she wasn’t lying?” Gabriel asked carefully. Over the past few weeks Angela had had her plate full between monitoring Amélie and testing the serum. Gabriel had all but convinced himself in that time that Moira must have been lying, and even Jack had found the idea of her being honest about it extremely unlikely.

“No, it’s the real thing.”

“When- when can it be used?” Gabriel asked, swallowing thickly and finding Jack’s hand to grip onto tightly, as if he needed to squeeze something to be sure the moment was real.

“I’m ready right now,” she smiled.

Gabriel turned to look at Jack, disbelief written across his face, Jack kissed it off. It was going to be okay.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love comments and kudos but I love making new friends more so if you play Overwatch on ps4 hmu on [tumblr](http://lovedvaa.tumblr.com/) and we can play together!
> 
> Thank you all for reading! <3


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